New York to Los Angeles in 3 hours? Executive order could make it possible by 2027, reopening the door for commercial supersonic flight
Supersonic trade trips could soon arrive in the United States following a new executive decree raising a 52-year ban on Overland Commercial Flights.
While supersonic flights could cross the Atlantic, the United States Federal Aviation Aviation (FAA) prohibited Overland Commercial Flights in 1973 in response to public pressure on noise problems. The new executive decreePublished on June 6, raises which prohibits and presents a calendar for the introduction of certification rules based on noise for supersonic flights.
This decision could reduce the journey time between New York and Los Angeles almost in two, from six to only 3.5 hours.
Before the ban, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union have all pursued commercial applications for supersonic aeronautical technology. But the supersonic planes of each country have created deafening and overwhelming sounds at ground level.
In relation: The XB -1 of Boom Supersonic Basse The sound barrier – becoming the first civilian plane to become supersonic in American history
The design of the TU-144 of the Soviet Union, for its part, depends strongly on the noisy post-burners for the plane to reach Mach 1 (767 MPH, or 1,235 km / h) – or faster than sound speed.
Today, companies love Supersonic boom Create a “Boom without Boom” where an aircraft can fly over 30,000 feet (9,100 meters), reach Mach 1 and produce no sounds at ground level – a phenomenon known as Mach’s cut. Boom’s planes reached this important step in January 2025, when she finished a test flight which successfully propelled the sound booms up, making them dissipate before reaching the ground.
Boom faces the competition from Lockheed Martin and his NASA research partner in the form of their X-59 supersonic demonstrator jet. The design of the X-59 places the engines of the plane above the fuselage, helping to limit the shock waves and the resulting noise, which reaches the level of the soil.
The regulatory calendar of this technology can be considered aggressive. The new directive requires an abrogation of prohibitions on supersonic flight by December 3, to establish noise certification standards before December 6, 2026 and the implementation of final rules by June 6, 2027.
In comparison, the regulations for the use of commercial drones has gone from the government’s mandate to final implementation in four years.
